The local incident occurred July 10 when someone broke into the Dollar General store at Myrtle about 1 a.m. by picking the lock, the sheriff said.

“They went in straight to the safe and hooked a big strap like truckers use to tie down loads to the safe and attempted to jerk it out of the floor,” Edwards said. “The strap broke,” and the suspects fled.

Later that same day, officers put the information about the crime out on the NCIC national criminal information computer system, asking about similar burglaries, and got a response from Lee County.

About eight to 10 months earlier a similar crime had occurred at a store in the Pratts community, and it was successful.

“They had some suspects so our investigators got with them and compared videos and other evidence,” Edwards said. “It appeared we were both seeking the same individuals.”

Then, the week before last, one of the Union County deputies learned that two Dollar General stores in McNairy County, Tennessee, had been burglarized the same way.

They also learned of another burglary in Pontotoc County.

“A couple of days later McNairy County made an arrest (on an unrelated charge), and he turned out to be one of our suspects,” Edwards said.

Union County investigators went back to McNairy County and when the suspect was freed on bond there, they arrested him and brought him to Union County for charges here.

Once the first suspect was in custody officers were able to learn the identities of the other two. The U. S. Marshals Service arrested the other two Friday in Prentiss County, according to Edwards.

In Union County, the suspects are charged with one count each of commercial burglary each, and bond was set at $50,000 each. Edwards said two of the three had made bond and been taken to Lee County this week, while the third was still in jail here.

The suspects got an undetermined amount of cash from the burglaries but nothing from Myrtle since they were unable to pull the safe out. Also, they managed to drag an ATM machine from one of the stores but could not get it open, Edwards said.

“Apparently, one of them was just driving through this area and saw the Myrtle store and thought it would be good,” Edwards said.

Edwards said the three are apparently just friends. There was no word about whether any of the stolen money had been recovered.